Ueda Akinari

Ueda Akinari was a creative figure of unique talent in eighteenth-century Japan -- a prolific writer of fiction, poetry, and personal and scholarly essays. He is best known as the author of Ugetsu Monogatari , a collection of short stories which numbers among the most beloved of Japanese classics. After the appearance of an award-winning film based on these tales in the 1950s and the discovery of his last manuscript, Harusame Monogatari , international attention was drawn to Akinari and his remarkable career. This biography is the first to examine Akinari's personal life in detail. Although much of his life remains obscure, Young evaluates the existing evidence to create a comprehensive portrait of this enigmatic man and of the people and events which influenced his work. View Less